Downtown Seattle condos

NEXUS has just announced that they are having an Encore Sales Event this weekend on Saturday November 18th from 11am to 5pm, which will debut 16 newly released city suites priced from the mid-$500's. If you were one of those folks who missed out on a studio or urban one bedroom at NEXUS, this is your opportunity.

Where did these newly released units come from? Well, after analyzing market demand, the project team has reconfigured the floor plates on floors 28 to 35, in the "third cube", so that where 8 larger one-bedroom plus den condos once were, there will now be 16 smaller city suites. Each of the 8 larger one-bedrooms will now be two independent units, one a 484 square foot studio and one a 503 square foot open one bedroom. The newly released homes will be priced from the mid-$500,000s to the mid-$600,000s, a price range that was previously sold out at NEXUS.

Some details to note about the Sales Event:

The sales will be first-come first-serve - doors open at 11am

Buyers will enter into a contract and provide a 5% earnest money deposit to secure the condo they want to purchase

They have decided to not allow any further investor purchases for the new release of these 16 units and will be requiring all buyers to sign the purchase and sale agreement indicating they are buying as a primary residence or as a second home

Click here to see a video from the sales team just explaining the new release.

Bosa Development's Civic Square condominium tower will now be a 57 story skyscraper. Previously reported to be only 43 stories, this is a big change in the number of units that will be built in this new Downtown condo project.

According to the PSBJ, this new condo tower on the block between Cherry and James streets and 3rd and 4th avenues, will house 520 residential units and 640 stalls of underground parking as well as boast, as required by the city, a public plaza area. The PSBJ article also mentions that there will be retail and coffee shops on the 3rd Ave side, a fountain and a curved facade facing 4th Ave.

The project is just entering the approval process with the City so we are a ways off from the ground breaking, most likely starting in late 2018 or 2019.

We look forward to seeing another Bosa condominium project in the city.

Daniels Real Estate, the Developer behind the Gridiron project in Pioneer Square, has it's hands in two new condominium projects coming to Seattle.

The first is a project located on First Hill, at 8th Avenue and Columbia Street. This project, known as 800 Columbia, will be a luxury 30 story tower with 287 residents. Rumors are that it will be condominiums. The building will have a rooftop deck, dog run, gym, bike storage, game room, party room, dining room and theater room.

The other is the project located near Pike Place Market at 1631 2nd Ave, now known as The Emerald. On this project, they are not the Developer but instead are the project investors' development consultant along with Create World. This new construction condo building has already broken ground and will be 40 stories and have 265 units. Emerald will have one, two and three bedroom condos ranging in size from 540 to 1,700 square feet. It will have retail on level one and amenities including a gym, yoga studio, pet area, guest suite and rooftop level party room and outdoor space.

We look forward to hearing pricing and anticipated sales and completion dates.

As we mentioned in an article back in October of last year, Bosa Development, the developer of Insignia Condominiums in Belltown, was in talks with the city to purchase the long-delayed Civic Square project in Downtown Seattle. The deal was tentative, awaiting the approval of the Seattle city council.

On Monday, the city council voted giving their approval to the terms of the purchase and sale agreement with Bosa. Bosa will be building a new high-rise condominium tower (around 43 stories) in the now empty pit but is required to provide a 25,000 public plaza that they will have to maintain as part of the project. There will be ground floor retail and underground parking. In addition to paying $16 million dollars for the lot, Bosa will also have to contribute a minimum of $5.7 million in voluntary affordable housing contributions to the City.

Bosa will need to get new permits for the site, so construction is estimated to begin no sooner than 2019 and will take an estimated 4 years to complete. The first design review meeting it set for November 7th.

So long as the Master Use Permit is issued, we should expect to see a new condominium tower breaking ground in Seattle in 2019!

Our readers often ask us how many of the cranes out there are building condominiums in Downtown, First Hill, South Lake Union, Pioneer Square and Belltown. Most people assume there are many condominium buildings taking shape under those construction cranes but believe it or not, only three cranes will belong to condo buildings. One is for Gridiron, the building located next to the stadiums, which is in full swing. NEXUS is another one and the last one is 1631 2nd Avenue (though technically neither of their cranes have even been erected yet). There is also the outlier of Hendon, being constructed in Phinney Ridge.

The other cranes are building hotels, apartments, office space, biotech space or some combination of those uses.

If you are ever curious about what the cranes are constructing, check out the Puget Sound Business Journal's handy tool, the Crane Watch here.

Hopefully this helps answer the burning question of "what are all those cranes building?".

After converting their reservation holders into Purchase and Sale Agreements, NEXUS released all unsold homes to the public on Saturday March 18th. Following the conversion of the reservations and that grand opening event, 286 of the 382 homes are sold, a staggering 75%. The remaining 96 homes are in the $800's and up. No studio or open one bedroom plans remain and no lower floor one bedroom homes are left either.

With NEXUS as the only new construction high rise likely to deliver homes before the start of the next decade, there is a lot of pent up demand for new construction condo product in Seattle. Other reasons for the high amount of demand? Commutes increasing within the region are driving people back into the city center. In-migration from Silicon Valley residents due to the relative affordability of real estate, the abundant number of tech jobs available, high incomes and the added bonus that we don't have a state income tax. Also leading to demand, the ability to combine condo units into a larger format home, which is a unique opportunity that can be hard to come across with resale condominiums for obvious reasons.

If you missed out on the grand opening event, but are looking for a higher floor 1 bedroom or a 2 bedroom home at NEXUS, there are still opportunities to buy and we are happy to help you navigate the remaining inventory.

NEXUS condominiums had their ground breaking ceremony this morning. Present were representatives from Burrard Group who is the Developer on the project, Weber Thompson who is the architect, interior designer and landscape architect for the project, Realogic's Sotheby's International Realty who is the marketing and sales team, a representative from the DSA and Skanska who is the contractor.

They announced that they will open for public sales at 11am sharp on Saturday March 18th at their new sales center. They also indicated that they have listed several of the condominium units for sale on the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, though at the time of this post only one was live on the market.

The ideas and inspirations that were mentioned at the ground breaking were the desire to create a new neighborhood within Downtown Seattle and to build the condos where walkability, transportation and proximity to job centers are key. Also noted was the want to incorporate innovative technology into the building, provide flexible floorplans, implement sustainable living ideas, and put forward a design that was not run of the mill. They are now calling the Denny Triangle, the neighborhood where NEXUS will be located, the East Village.

We will attend the VIP Reception this evening and report back on any additional information we learn about NEXUS and the sales process.

The sales team at NEXUS condominiums has released an updated schedule of how the events and sales process will progress from now through the public grand opening and sales event.

February 22nd: Advance distribution of legal files for courtesy review

February 24th: Official Notification to 1st Position Reservation Holders

February 25th: Sales Center for 1st Position Reservation Holders

March 4th: Official Notification to 2nd Position Reservation Holders

March 11th: Public Grand Opening & Sales Event

Of course several of these events are for reservation holders only so if you are not currently in a reservation for a unit, you will have to wait until March 4th to attend the public grand opening. However, after the reservation holder only events, some units might come back on the market if any reservations do not convert into purchase and sale agreements so you might be able to snag a unit you loved that had previously been reserved.

We hope to see you at the Grand Opening but if before then you would like to learn more about NEXUS or reserve a unit, ping us and we will walk you through the process.

NEXUS condominiums, breaking ground this month and completing in 2018, announced that they will open their sales center and model home next month in March. The sales center will include a full size model home and interactive exhibits.

With the opening of the sales center, we anticipate that reservations will be converted to purchase and sale agreements soon as well. We will keep you all informed as the actual date of the grand opening.

We look forward to checking out the sales center and hope to see some of you there at the grand opening!

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About the Authors

Marco Kronen is the co-author and a condo Realtor. He and Wendy have worked together serving clients in Seattle since 2007. Feel free to contact Marco here.
Wendy Leung is the founding editor of the Seattle Condo Review. She's also a full-service Seattle realtor.